By Nate Perry, TTU Sports Information
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. – Following its first lengthy road trip of the season last week at the Charleston Southern Buccaneer Classic, the Tennessee Tech women's basketball team will venture westward to Wichita State and Arkansas this weekend to wrap a four-game stretch of contests away from the Hooper Eblen Center.
The Golden Eagles will visit Wichita State first on Sunday afternoon at 2 p.m. CT, and finish with a 7 p.m. date with Arkansas on Tuesday evening.
Tech comes off a pair of solid showings in Charleston last week, where they used a second-half surge to down the host CSU 77-55 on Saturday, before falling 80-73 to an athletic Old Dominion team that shot 46.2 percent from three-point range, and 81.5 percent from the free throw line in the game.
Jordan Brock turned in the best all-around game of her Tech career against CSU, going for 19 points, six rebounds and four assists, and was rewarded with an all-tournament team selection.
Kesha Brady averaged 16.3 points over three games last week – going back to Monday's tilt with Western Carolina – and posted sparkling shooting percentages from all over the floor. In addition to a 48-percent clip from the field (12-for-25) and a 50-percent mark from three-point range (5-for-10), Brady missed just one of her 21 free throw attempts for an outstanding 95.2-percent connection rate.
After a bit of a slow start to the season, Brady has now scored in double figures in four of TTU's six games, and is the team's second leading scorer with 11.8 points per game.
Anacia Wilkinson moved all the way up to fifth on the national list for blocked shots over the weekend, totaling four in each game for a total of 18 on the year (3.0 per game).
Wilkinson was also Tech's best offensive player in the loss to Old Dominion, dropping a career-high 18 points. Fifteen of those came in the first half, and allowed Tech to remain within striking distance throughout the game.
Now, a look at Tech's opponents:
WICHITA STATE PROFILE
Wichita State is in its second season as a member of the American Athletic Conference, where it finished sixth in the league standings a season ago with a 9-7 record.
WSU was previously affiliated with the Missouri Valley Conference starting in the 1992-93 season, where it went 219-227 over 25 seasons.
The program took shares of the MVC regular-season title in 2012-13 and 2013-14, and won the league outright in 2014-15. It also made the NCAA Tournament in all three of those campaigns - the first three berths in its history.
Coach Keitha Adams has the Shockers off to a good start in her second season at the helm, having compiled a 5-2 record through seven contests. After a four-game winning streak to open the season, WSU has dropped two of its last three, including its most recent matchup with Oklahoma State.
Wichita State features a defensive brand of basketball, as it has held opponents to an average of 56.1 points per game, and ranks second in the AAC in field goal percentage defense and three-point field goal percentage defense.
They make a priority of attacking the glass as well, holding the league's second-best marks in both rebounds allowed (31.7) and rebounding margin (plus-7.3).
Senior forward Sabrina Lozada-Cabbage is the Shocks' leading scorer (10.9) and rebounder (6.0), and has produced double-digit scoring outputs in three of her team's seven games. The highlight of her season so far was a 16-point, 16-rebound outing against Louisiana Tech on Nov. 24.
The Santa Fe, N.M. native currently ranks second in the American with a .620 field goal percentage and is among the league's top 10 in both rebounding and blocked shots.
The Shockers also have five European players on their squad, with two of them hailing from France, and the other three from Belgium, Poland and Switzerland.
One such player, French guard Carla Bremaud, is the team's most volatile threat from three-point range, as she's made 10 of 31 attempts for a .323 percentage on the year. She's also the team's second leading scorer at 9.0 points per game.
Freshman guard Dawnyel Lair led the way in Wichita's most recent tilt, netting 15 points on 6-of-11 shooting in a 60-47 loss to Oklahoma State.
SERIES NOTES
Tech won the only previous encounter between the two teams, as it prevailed 54-48 in Cookeville on Dec. 22, 2015.
Samaria Howard was the star of the show that night for the Golden Eagles, pouring in a game-high 21 points, and a team-leading seven rebounds.
It was also the final nonconference win of Jim Davis's tenure as Tennessee Tech head coach.
ARKANSAS PROFILE
Arkansas has played 28 seasons as a member of the heralded Southeastern Conference, where it has compiled a 138-257 record. It has never won an SEC regular-season or tournament championship.
Arkansas has made the NCAA Tournament 11 times in its history, most recently in 2015.
Head coach Mike Neighbors came across his fair share of speed bumps in his first season at the helm of his alma mater, leading the Razorbacks to a 13-18 record in 2017-18 and a 3-13 mark in a vaunted year for the SEC, which boasted seven teams in the final Associated Press Top 25, and four in the top 15.
The Hogs returned 10 of 11 letterwinners and 80.3 percent of their scoring to start the 2018-19 campaign, including double-digit point-getters Malica Monk, (15.9 ppg) who led the offensive output, and Jailyn Mason (11.0 ppg).
The lone loss was graduate student Devin Cosper, who was the team's second leading scorer (14.0 ppg) and contributed 5.6 rebounds per game.
Neighbors has his team off to a 5-2 start to begin his second season, with wins over Northwestern State, UT-Arlington, Tennessee State, Wisconsin, and Oral Roberts, and losses to No. 22 Arizona State and Pittsburgh. Two of those victories, UT-Arlington and Wisconsin, came by just one point.
First-year roster player Chelsea Dungee currently leads the Hogs with 16.3 points per game over their first seven contests. Dungee sat out all of last year due to NCAA transfer regulations after importing from Oklahoma.
The redshirt sophomore guard's scoring average is currently sixth-best in the SEC, as she paces her club from the free throw line (78 percent, 9th in SEC), from behind the three-point line (37 percent), and is second on the team in overall FG percentage (.439).
Junior Alexis Tolefree (13.4 ppg) joins Monk (13.0 ppg) as the other two Razorbacks averaging double figures in scoring. Tolefree also has a team-high 13 steals on the year and has drained the most threes (18, 7th in SEC), while Monk leads the team in assists (20) as well.
Kiara Williams and Taylah Thomas lead the Hogs' rebounding effort with 8.3 and 7.0 per game, respectively. Williams' mark is No. 8 in the league.
SERIES NOTES
Tech has met up with Arkansas two times in its program history, and has split the two decisions.
The Golden Eagles were victorious in the first meeting on Nov. 27, 1981, when they downed the Hogs in the season-opener, 96-75, as part of the Tennessee Tech Tipoff Tournament.
Tech would wind up with a 20-11 overall record and 10-2 OVC ledger in the 1981-82 season, on its way to the program's first-ever NCAA Tournament berth.
Arkansas would get its revenge in the second clash, defeating TTU 79-53 on Dec. 20, 2013 in Bud Walton Arena.
UA's McKenzie Adams and Jessica Jackson led the offense that day with 18 points apiece, while Kelsey Brooks came off the bench with 13 points. Jackson also pulled down 11 rebounds for a double-double. T'Keyah Williams was Tech's leading scorer in the game with 12 points.
LIVE STATS/BROADCAST INFORMATION
TTU vs. Wichita State Live Stats
TTU-Wichita State Live Stream (Yurview.com - Kansas)
TTU-Arkansas Live Stats
TTU-Arkansas Live Stream (ESPN+)
Photo by Thomas Corhern, TTU Sports Information
